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Imagining Your Future Self ⇑ C Consciousness and Cognition 37 (2015) 207–213 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Consciousness and Cognition journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/concog Turning I into me: Imagining your future self ⇑ C. Neil Macrae a, , Jason P. Mitchell b, Kirsten A. Tait a, Diana L. McNamara a, Marius Golubickis a, Pavlos P. Topalidis a, Brittany M. Christian c a School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK b Department of Psychology, Harvard University, USA c Booth School of Business, University of Chicago, USA article info abstract Article history: A widely endorsed belief is that perceivers imagine their present selves using a different Received 27 January 2015 representational format than imagining their future selves (i.e., near future = first- Revised 3 July 2015 person; distant future = third-person). But is this really the case? Responding to the paucity Accepted 26 September 2015 of work on this topic, here we considered how temporal distance influences the extent to which individuals direct their attention outward or inward during a brief imaginary epi- sode. Using a non-verbal measure of visual perspective taking (i.e., letter-drawing task) Keywords: our results confirmed the hypothesized relation between temporal distance and concep- Mental imagery tions of the self. Whereas simulations of an event in the near future were dominated by Visual perspective Self-awareness a first-person representation of the self, this switched to a third-person depiction when Prospection the event was located in the distant future. Critically, this switch in vantage point was Temporal construal restricted to self-related simulations. The theoretical and practical implications of these Self findings are considered. Ó 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction To deal with the vicissitudes of daily life, people spend an inordinate amount of time imagining the future (Killingsworth & Gilbert, 2010; Smallwood & Schooler, 2006). These moments lost in inner thought are not without purpose, however. By previewing forthcoming experiences, mental simulation acts as a virtual platform on which behavioral selection can be appraised, adjusted and optimized (Boyer, 2008; Gilbert & Wilson, 2007; Suddendorf & Corballis, 2007; Wilson & Gilbert, 2003). Whether one’s goal is to bake an apple pie, perform a clarinet solo, or interact effectively with a new colleague, prior mental preparation serves as an important precursor to doing (Addis, Wong, & Schacter, 2007; Buckner & Carroll, 2007; Gilbert & Wilson, 2007; Pham & Taylor, 1999; Schacter, Addis, & Buckner, 2007; Szpunar, 2010; Taylor, Pham, Rivkin, & Armor, 1998). Put simply, imagining oneself in the future is an indispensable psychological tool (Suddendorf & Corballis, 2007). Given the multiple ways in which imaginary experiences can affect both brain and behavior (e.g., Barsalou, 1999; Christian, Miles, Fung, Best, & Macrae, 2013; Christian, Parkinson, Macrae, Miles, & Wheatley, 2015; Libby & Eibach, 2011; Libby, Shaeffer, Eibach, & Slemmer, 2007; Libby, Valenti, Hines, & Eibach, 2014; Macrae, Sunder Raj, Best, Christian, & Miles, 2013; Macrae et al., 2014; Miles, Christian, Masilamani, Volpi, & Macrae, 2014; Moulton & Kosslyn, 2009), an impor- tant question arises—how exactly is the self represented during bouts of prospection? In tackling this issue, conventional ⇑ Corresponding author at: School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, King’s College, Aberdeen AB24 3FX, Scotland, UK. E-mail address: [email protected] (C.N. Macrae). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2015.09.009 1053-8100/Ó 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 208 C.N. Macrae et al. / Consciousness and Cognition 37 (2015) 207–213 wisdom is unequivocal. According to both theories of action identification and temporal construal (Liberman & Trope, 2008; Trope & Liberman, 2003; Vallacher & Wegner, 1985), forthcoming events (e.g., going on vacation) can be represented in either a super- or subordinate manner—what matters is when the event is scheduled to occur (e.g., next week vs. next year). Construal-Level theory (CLT, Trope & Liberman, 2003, 2010) contends that whereas impending events (e.g., a trip to Rome) tend to be characterized in a concrete, detail-rich manner (e.g., locating one’s passport, reading restaurant reviews, packing), distant events comprise abstract, decontextualized representations that convey only the gist or general meaning of an experience (e.g., enjoying a weekend break with friends). In other words, as events become temporally distant, repre- sentations increase in schematic content. Presaging the principles of CLT, Vallacher and Wegner’s (1985) Action Identifica- tion theory asserts that not all goals and action plans are represented in the same way. Whereas superordinate (i.e., abstract) representations center on the overarching purpose of an action (i.e., why the action occurred; e.g., securing one’s house), sub- ordinate (i.e., concrete) characterizations focus instead on the specific means through which an action can be realized (i.e., how the action is performed; e.g., locking the door). Integrating these theoretical perspectives, research has confirmed that temporal distance shifts the representational specificity of action goals (Christian, Miles, Fung et al., 2013; Christian, Miles, Parkinson, & Macrae, 2013; Liberman & Trope, 1998). Critically, distinct phenomenological representations of the self are also believed to accompany these differences in event/goal specificity (Liberman, Trope, McCrea, & Sherman, 2007; Updegraff, Emanuel, Suh, & Gallagher, 2010; Updegraff & Suh, 2007). Specifically, mental imagery is characterized by a switch from actor- (i.e., first-person perspective, ‘view the world through your own eyes’) to observer-based (i.e., third-person perspective, ‘seeing oneself from an outside perspective’) rep- resentations when simulations shift from events in the near to distant future (e.g., Libby & Eibach, 2011; Pronin & Ross, 2006; Trope & Liberman, 2003, 2010). Despite widespread endorsement of this putative relation between temporal distance and visual imagery perspective, supporting empirical evidence is scant. In the only direct investigation of this issue, Pronin and Ross (2006, Expt. 4) required participants to imagine a meal at different points in the future (e.g., tomorrow vs. when aged over 40) and then probed the perspective from which the event was simulated using verbal descriptions of first- and third-person visual experiences (for related research, see Wakslak, Nussbaum, Liberman, & Trope, 2008). As predicted, mental imagery was more observer-like (i.e., third-person) for a meal in the distant than near future ( Trope & Liberman, 2003, 2010). On closer inspection, however, a dominant imagery perspective only emerged for the near-future event. Specifically, whereas an impending meal triggered predominantly first-person imagery (i.e., 13 out of 15 participants), this tendency was eliminated when the event was slated to occur in the distant future (i.e., first-person = 8 participants; third- person = 9 participants). Thus, it has yet to be established that distant events elicit third-person (vs. first-person) imagery. Pronin and Ross’s (2006) findings are important for at least a couple of reasons. First, they resonate with studies exploring vantage-point differences in the recollection of events from the near and distant past (e.g., D’Argembeau, Comblain, & Van der Linden, 2003; Frank & Gilovich, 1989; Libby & Eibach, 2002; Lorenz & Neisser, 1985; Nigro & Neisser, 1983; Robinson & Swanson, 1993; Vasquez & Buehler, 2007). Second, albeit with a small sample, they provide preliminary evidence that tem- poral distance influences the dominant perspective from which prior imaginary episodes are reported, at least with respect to near-future events. It is worth noting, however, that this demonstration relies on an explicit verbal measure to ascertain the vantage point adopted during mental imagery. Although such measures have a long history in psychological research (Morin, 2011), emphasis has also fallen on identifying indirect ways of probing differences in self-awareness (e.g., Eichstaedt & Silvia, 2003; Haas, 1984; Wegner & Giuliano, 1980). These techniques are valuable as they have the potential to tap aspects of the self that are unavailable to conscious inspection and circumvent the problems associated with self- reports (Duval & Wicklund, 1972). Accordingly, we used one such measure in the current investigation to explore the effects of temporal distance on the vantage point adopted during future-related mental imagery. 1.1. The current research Numerous theorists have advanced the idea that self-consciousness intensifies when individuals view the self from the standpoint of an external observer1 (Cooley, 1902; Duval & Wicklund, 1972; Mead, 1934; Piaget, 1926; Wicklund, 1975). Piaget (1926), for example, asserted that egocentrism is diminished when people shift attention from the external world and focus instead on the self from the vantage point of others, a switch in attentional orientation that captures the influential dis- tinction between two fundamental facets of the self: ‘I’ and ‘me’ (i.e., self-as-agent/knower vs. self-as-object/known; see Cooley, 1902; James, 1890; Mead, 1934). Of assistance to the current inquiry, three decades ago Haas (1984) devised an ingenious methodology to reveal these contrasting conceptions of the self. Requesting participants to draw the letter ‘E’ on their foreheads, Hass noted that when attention was directed toward
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